


Yellow

by redtoblack



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Inside the TARDIS (Doctor Who), Karl (Doctor Who) (mentioned), Song: Yellow (Coldplay), Space is pretty, Thirteen listens to music and gets sentimental, Young Amelia Pond (mentioned), as I write more I realize the TARDIS may be my favorite character in Doctor Who, like a tiny amount of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24141271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redtoblack/pseuds/redtoblack
Summary: Thirteen listens to music, looks at space, and gets sentimental.
Relationships: The Doctor/The Doctor's TARDIS, Thirteenth Doctor/The Doctor's TARDIS
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Yellow

**Author's Note:**

> This is the start of a series of music-based one shots while I work on some longer stuff. It started out as just "wait what if the Doctor found a recording of Jodie Whittaker singing 'Yellow'" and then turned into a lot more. Enjoy, and comments welcome. Well wishes to everyone! :)

It was a calm, quiet morning. Or maybe night time. Elevenses?

Regardless, it was nice for the Doctor to have some time to herself, whatever time that happened to be. The crystalline pillars of the TARDIS were still and peaceful, feeling for all the world like a comforting hand holding the inner console room in her palm. They cast a warm orange glow over the Doctor as she worked. Her shadow flickered lazily like smoke at her side. A slight hum danced in the air as if carried on a metallic autumn breeze, at times reverberating the laughter of long-gone friends, at others ancient Gallifreyan melodies.

Extricating herself from the gap she had opened under the console, the Doctor tugged her goggles on top of her head and sat back to evaluate her work. Wires clamped in place, dimensional capsules unimpeded, welding smooth and shiny, fractal cogs aligned…

She pushed a stray tangle of hair out of her face, leaving a wide band of oil across her forehead, and looked up to the main console.

“What do you think, old girl? Give it a try?”

In response, the TARDIS slowly began to gather power, like someone flexing their fingers experimentally after getting a brace off. The Doctor smiled, keeping a careful eye on the newly repaired part in case anything sparked, broke, or caught on fire. She felt a burst of contentment from her ship as energy kept building at the console, and the background hum of music got a little louder and cheerier.

“I’ll take that as ‘we’re good to go,’” she grinned, and replaced the panel covering the inner mechanisms. The tools and pieces strewn across the floor were all swept into a bucket. “Back to Sheffield then?” Her goggles ended up hanging from a nondescript hook that she would definitely probably not forget about later.

The music, now audible, got even louder so the Doctor could hear it clearly. It was an old celebration tune, a favorite among friends at the Academy. She let herself dance a little, the awkward sort only the TARDIS was allowed to witness, as she set the controls to return to her fam. At each press of a button or flick of a switch, she could feel the energy coalescing just beneath her fingers an instant before she got there.

“I get it, you’re excited,” she laughed. “Sorry that dwarf modulator took me so long to fix. Nearly there now-” they pulled the final lever at the same time. The blue box glowed at the Doctor as they spiraled off into the time vortex, and her thief smiled back.

As they set off through the folds and eddies of reality to her fam’s Sheffield, a week after she had left, the music lowered and faded away. The Doctor looked up, questioning, and felt a gentle reminder float across the back of her mind. Her smile sagged for an instant before regaining strength.

“Oh, right. You’re, you’re right. Gallifreyan music, probably for the best. Don’t want any questions, yeah?” The reminder reshaped itself into a question, a reassuring search. The TARDIS silently let herself drift a more scenic route through the whorls of time and space outside, slowing their progress towards Sheffield.

“What about…” the Doctor leaned appreciatively against the console, drumming the fingers of one hand against it and feeling the question in her mind mirrored within the cool metal. Her other hand went to hang idly from her braces as she thought out loud.

“I don’t listen to much music, you know. Last time I did it on purpose was,” she jumped up and twirled around to face the console, eyebrows raised excitedly. “Oh! That one Yaz told me to listen to! Do you remember it? The one that sounds like me?”

There were a few whirrs from somewhere in the ceiling region. They may have had some kind of practical purpose, but the Doctor didn’t even know where they were coming from so she just took them as a sign towards the affirmative. Accompanying them were happy clouds painted on a brilliant blue sky that had appeared in her mind, chasing away any of the remaining tension it had caused to stop the music from her home planet. She waited patiently.

The music started, playing as much out loud as it was in her mind, all-encompassing yet not overpowering.

_Look at the stars~_

The Doctor smiled, deep laugh lines framing her face. “Aw, that’s brilliant. That’s the one all right.”

_Look how they shine for you~_

She wandered over to the doors and looked through the windows. “What if I sang? I bet I could still get out there. Still get fan mail from that album I released in Castor’s Belt.”

_Yeah they were all yellow~_

“The fan mail? Yeah. No woody flora so they send writing tablets made from sulfur clay. Smells awful...” She watched time waterfall past and caught glimpses of matter fluttering in and out of existence through space. 

“When are you planning to get there, by the way?” A hand moved from shielding her eyes against the window to intentionally press lightly against the blue not-wood of the door. It left a sizable smudge of oil there, making the Doctor frown disapprovingly and untuck part of her shirt to wipe it off. “I assume you have a reason for taking a long-cut.”

_...something beautiful~_

She faced the leisurely working engines, a proud scrunch decorating her face. “Long-cut. I’ve started using it. Do you like it? I like it.”

_You know I love you so~_

Her smile softened to something more intimate. The Doctor looked around at the console room with a warm, easy gaze. “I know, old girl.”

A chirp came from the console that sounded like it definitely ended in an exclamation point. The Doctor broke into a light-hearted laugh.

“Of course I didn’t forget! ‘Sexy’ it is, then. Still accurate, you know.” She raised her eyebrows playfully at the console.

As the music kicked up, she returned her attention to their stroll through the universe. Her smile remained gracefully on her lips and in her gaze. Road to Sheffield, the long way round. Usually there was never time for this. Too much running and hitting the wrong controls and impressing humans and tripping into the next adventure. She sent out a wave of “do what you like” and “I’ll just trust you” through her fingertips where they were pressed against the not-glass, and started to enjoy not worrying about when they would arrive.

Why didn’t she listen to music more often? It was actually quite nice. It was making the Doctor oddly sentimental, nostalgic, even.

_I swam across~_

An image of books and walls the wrong way up. Not just the wrong way up, the wrong _way_ \- soaking wet. Later she would be challenged, “You said you were in the library,” and she would reasonably answer, “So was the swimming pool.”

_I jumped across for you~_

The red-haired girl in her mind's eye shifted to a special, valued young man who achieved his goals. So human, so high above the cold Sheffield ground, he just needed something to hold onto. Like the hunter at his back, dragging him by the collar. Like the Doctor, because there was suddenly only air beneath her too-large dress shoes, she was falling, flying, and then she was holding on.

The Doctor blinked and the images cleared. “Huh.” She focused in on the sensation of her fingers against smooth not-glass, the familiar rush of space-time flight, the lightshow of galaxies passing in an instant outside the windows.

“That was interesting. Is music supposed to do that?” The TARDIS let out a few innocent beeps from behind her. She sent a look over her shoulder towards the console.

_I drew a line for you~_

The Doctor scoffed. “Oi, Time Lord brain, you know. I could’ve gotten there on my own.”

A cobalt blue expanse filled up her view for a fraction of an instant as they passed through the space right next to the planet’s surface before it was gone. The Doctor was startled back from the window for a moment, but just as quickly resumed her position watching their progress as they flashed through a particularly wide nebula that shimmered like gold dust.

She settled in to let her mind wander among the music in her ears, the shifting waves of matter reflected in her hazel eyes, and the flow of time energy that prickled all around her.

_Oh yeah you’re skin and bones~_

The death of a star, the birth of a species.

End of the universe, fixed timeline, pearL-1.ue, 753 BCE, era of Risamuth.

_For you, I’d bleed myself dry~_

Ever closer to her destination, neither in space nor in time, but always approaching that moment. She knew they had been, were still, would be waiting.

_Look how they shine for you~_

The Doctor did look. She gazed fondly upon the brilliance of the universe, as much a home to her as her own skin or ship - always familiar and ceaselessly new.

She felt the winds and waves of time nestle and congeal around the ship.

“Time to get a shift on, then?” The TARDIS obligingly made her materializing sounds - she had turned the hand brakes off to make sure not to jostle the Doctor during her specially planned detour, so first she subtly turned them back on - and finally came to perch on a grass strip across the street from Graham’s flat. It was indeed the promised Sheffield, the promised one week after they had last left. The Doctor grinned and swiped her coat from where it lay across a pillar, pulling it on with a flourish.

“Right. And right on time!” She said enthusiastically, and threw open the doors, shuffling a bit so that she could stand against the frame with her arms crossed and look cool when her fam arrived.

_Look how they shine~_

The TARDIS carefully faded out the last few lines of the song so it would be for the Doctor’s ears only. She cared for her Team too, but this moment with this song was a gift, just for her thief.

_Look at the stars~_

Yaz was out the door first, walking down the stairs backwards to talk animatedly with Ryan about whether or not you should have a conversation with someone on more than one app at once. Graham walked just behind them, looking completely lost but enjoying their conversation anyway.

_Look how they shine for you~_

The Doctor uncrossed one hand in a cheerful little wave as they got down to the street, and felt her hearts glow as their eyes lit up. Yaz grinned, Ryan waved back excitedly, Graham called out a “Mornin’, Doc!” They made their way across the street towards her, and the Doctor noticed the song was no longer playing at all, the last line lilting within her thoughts before gently falling away.

_And all the things that you do~_

She patted the doorframe affectionately as she straightened up and stuck her hands deep into her coat pockets.

“Top o’ the morning, fam! Wait, no. Forget that. Where are we off to today? Have you had breakfast yet? I could really use a fried egg sandwich…”


End file.
